On those occasions where you have been asked to "teach a trick or two" as part of your performance (often for a small/parlor-sized group of spectators in my case) which effect(s) have you elected to teach? I frequently have gotten this request for kids shows, but lately I've noticed that I'm getting this request for teens and general adult shows more and more.

Do you go with a rather well-known effect within the profession that has been taught to audiences for eons (but is likely to still be unknown to your audience)? Do you opt for a "sucker" type trick (i.e., teach the torn-and-restored napkin, but then pleasantly zing them with "restored extra pieces" kicker)? Or do you politely decline to teach any effect on the grounds of exposure/"a magician never reveals their secrets?"

I am reluctant to teach tricks nowadays since there is enough bloody magic exposure as it is. And I don't particularly like to do it at paid gigs as it slows up the momentum. However, in social situations or in situations where I deem it to be good for business I do have one simple trick that I give away to the multitude if I feel in a generous mood. Here it is:

Because I don't want them to be interested! Magic is supposed to be a secret art. I would FAR prefer it if people were less interested in magic and minded their own business. The way things are going there will be no bloody laymen left to show the tricks to. However, if you must show them something make it very simple indeed.

I really do not approve of everybody and their mother being interested in magic. There are enough horrendously bad magicians around as it is and I would prefer it if there were a lot less. And whether we like it or not the secrets of magic are the only reason that magic is still alive. And it won't be alive much longer the way things are going with all this bloody internet exposure.

I suppose I do have to concede that at kid shows I give out a mystery dollar or some other promotional thing which gives a few secrets away. This is not really a problem because in North America the kids can't read anyway and even if they could the tricks would be far too difficult in any case.

Oh, but wait a minute! I completely forgot that I do expose a trick in my kid show! It does get a big laugh! However, I can only plead innocence since I stole the very idea from an eminent performer when I saw him perform at the Victoria Palace in London well over 50 years ago. I even stole the very same trick. I figured that if it was all right for him to expose it in his show I didn't see why I couldn't. After all he was far more eminent than me. His name was (and oddly enough, still is) David Berglas.

Could this not be an opportunity for the up sell?"i don't normally do this, but for $X per child, I'll teach them how to do <insert favorite slum trick> and they'll get one to take to perform at home."

Jim Sisti has a detailed article on this subject in the September 2002 issue of MAGIC (pg 92-93) that you might find useful. In addition to his thoughts on the subject in general, he details a routine that starts as an explanation of a simple mathematical trick and ends with a magical climax.

Jim Sisti has a detailed article on this subject in the September 2002 issue of MAGIC (pg 92-93) that you might find useful. In addition to his thoughts on the subject in general, he details a routine that starts as an explanation of a simple mathematical trick and ends with a magical climax.

Thanks, erdnasephile - I'll track that down. I only got back into magic since mid-2010 after being away for multiple life reasons since the late 1980s, so I've missed a lot of stuff in all those intervening years.

Daryl also has published an effect he used to use in this circumstance detailed in his "Daryl does Den Haag" lecture notes (pg 20). [He does note, however, that he stopped doing that because "IT'S TOO GOOD!" (emphasis per the original)] Nevertheless, I'll pass it on for your consideration.

Things can backfire; a couple of years ago there was a young girl, perhaps ten or eleven years old, who was interested in magic. I chatted to her a little at the table, and talked to her father. I explained that, if he was ok with it, I would email here a magic trick when I got home. He said that would be a great idea.

A couple of days later I sent her a copy of Josh Jay's Under/Over book and a simple card trick. Apparently her father went nuts, wondering why an adult was emailing his daughter. I asked her to get her father to email me, but she didn't. I cut off communication.

It seems that he was a bit drunk at the wedding when I spoke with him, and didn't remember our conversation. It was an unpleasant couple of days...

Ian Kendall wrote:Things can backfire; a couple of years ago there was a young girl, perhaps ten or eleven years old, who was interested in magic. I chatted to her a little at the table, and talked to her father. I explained that, if he was ok with it, I would email here a magic trick when I got home. He said that would be a great idea.

A couple of days later I sent her a copy of Josh Jay's Under/Over book and a simple card trick. Apparently her father went nuts, wondering why an adult was emailing his daughter. I asked her to get her father to email me, but she didn't. I cut off communication.

It seems that he was a bit drunk at the wedding when I spoke with him, and didn't remember our conversation. It was an unpleasant couple of days...

Hi, Ian. I had a similar but less creepy experience. At a funeral for a young cousin's grandma, I learned that the kid was interested in magic, so I sent him a book via Amazon. Unfortunately, he had previously used his dad's credit card and ordered a couple of hundred dollars worth of Pokemon cards. When the Amazon box arrived addressed to him, it was, "OK, Jacob, what did you order THIS time?" Fortunately it ended well.